This is my favourite (short) excerpt from the book (from The Seven Potters):

And then Harry saw him. Voldemort was flying like smoke on the wind, without broomstick or Thestral to hold him, his snake-like face gleaming out of the blackness, his white fingers raising his wand again -

One of my flat out fave moments was when Dobby arrives to save them: "Dobby has no master. Dobby is a free elf and Dobby has come to save Harry Potter and his friends!" (quoting from memory)And then his subsequent death. Huge emotional moment, from one extreme to the other. I boo-hooed.

First of all Everton, I understand why people wouldn't want to be spoiled, but that hardly makes people who read spoilers 'intellectual criminals.' Sure there are people who hate knowing any tidbit of information before they start, but why attack people who don't mind being spoiled?

As for favorite parts, Kreacher braining Dung with the frying pan was priceless. "Just once more, for good luck?" made me lawwwls. The Ravenclaw Common Room door owned my face. I want to be a Ravenclaw. Lupin and Tonks lying peacefully under the ceiling of the Great Hall got me all choked up. And Molly pwning Bellatrix was great.

Things I didn't like:

On a totally personal note, I wish there had been a little more detail about George's grief. She described the whole Weasley family sobbing over Fred's body, but George got less time and description than Molly. Considering how easily he rebounded from losing an ear, I think Rowling missed a great opportunity to show that something can break the Gred and Forge spirit, and to show how very much a part of each other they were. They were two of my very favorite characters, so that probably influences me, but I think George deserved more time to grieve than just a half a sentence about him kneeling over his brother's body.

I also thought it was totally absurd, out of character, disgusting, and a terrible choice to have Harry perform an Unforgivable Curse. The Imperius in Gringotts I forgave after a bit of shock, but using the Cruciatus on the Carrows is an inexplicable choice Rowling made and totally out of character. Plus, McGonagall watching him do it and not being apalled just makes it even worse. I am completely at a loss as to why Rowling did that.

As for both the questions of Harry lives/Harry dies and Snape Friend/Foe, Rowling totally copped out. Harry lives AND dies! Snape is a friend AND foe! Lame. I do like the satisfactory explanation for the "gleam of triumph" moment in GoF, but other than that I hated the King's Cross chapter. Every book since PoA has followed the format of "stuff happens, Dumbledore explains what happened and why in the second to last chapter" now that he was dead I was glad Rowling was going to escape that...but somehow she didn't.

Oh, and after finding out the Prince's tale, Snape asking Harry to look him in the eyes as he died was creepy in a NAMBLA kind of way.

Sure there are people who hate knowing any tidbit of information before they start, but why attack people who don't mind being spoiled?

I'm not attacking those who don't mind being spoiled, I just think they're missing a trick... robbing themselves of something. What I'm attacking is those who choose to distribute the book beforehand electronically - the thieves (they are the criminals). With something as manically high profile as Potter, the electronic version of the book increased - dramatically - the chances of spoilers filtering into the media. And they duly did. It was not easy to prevent myself being spoiled in the last few days of build-up. I found myself ignoring newspapers, being very careful about what the news bulletins showed, or what the radio might accidentally blurt out. Really an unacceptable state of affairs.

I also thought it was totally absurd, out of character, disgusting, and a terrible choice to have Harry perform an Unforgivable Curse. The Imperius in Gringotts I forgave after a bit of shock, but using the Cruciatus on the Carrows is an inexplicable choice Rowling made and totally out of character. Plus, McGonagall watching him do it and not being apalled just makes it even worse. I am completely at a loss as to why Rowling did that.

I was more shocked that McGonagall didn't react to it than Harry actually performing it. Harry's tried to an Unforgivable Curse before, and failed. It's not beyond him. Particularly given he has a sliver of Tom's soul within him. It's not a total stretch.

The whole situation just seemed different. When he tried it in OOTP he was facing Bellatrix, right after she had killed Sirius and was all riled up besides. Here, he just seemed to do it so calmly and coldly, and he was even being snide. Yeah, having Voldemort's soul does give it a bit more credence, but when he did it I felt almost betrayed.

This is from days ago in the Knockturn Alley thread, but I'm just catching up:

Katana_Geldar said:

I do want to say one thing though about the book in general, but I'll black it out all the same. It's VERY VIOLENT and VERY, VERY DARK. I am worried about all the kids who are going to read/hear this book and how they are going to react to what is in it, particularly the Malfoy's Manor scene as Hermione is tortured by Bellatrix though we never actually see it, which makes it more chilling.
...If you are going to read/give this to young kids, I suggest you read it yourself before you do and consider leaving bits out and just "telling" what happened. IMHO there's going to be a huge public outcry about the violence and "adultness" of the book. The Anti-Potter Camp will have a field day and I shudder to think what the film will be like.

You were expecting what? Lollipops and bunny rabbits? Have you read any of the other books in this series? It has been getting steadily darker since the beginning.
The penultimate scene in CoS, although it is more of a Young Adult novel type of violence, is nonetheless scary and violent with the basilisk and the destruction of the diary horcrux. That book also features enormous man-eating spiders.
PoA introduces us to dementors, which are conceptually a terrifying prospect, and described as disgusting rotting floating bodies that EAT your SOUL. Plus the kids have a close encounter with a werewolf, and supposedly hear a hippogriff execution.
Voldemort's resurrection in GoF is still one of the most sickeningly gory scenes in the entire series with Wormtail cutting off his own hand and the disgusting fetus-like Voldemort stewing in a cauldron of blood, bone, and flesh.
Umbridge's black detention quill in OOTP is a quiet, understated, government approved violence, which is ideologically probably more damaging to kids than an all-out battle like the Battle of Hogwarts. Plus we meet Neville's parents and learn that they were tortured until they lost their minds.
And the lakeside scene by the horcrux in HBP remains the single most difficult thing (psychologically) I have read in a Harry Potter book, with Harry tipping the poison down his tortured mentor's throat, encouraging him to drink it.
After all of that, Hermione being tortured for 10 minutes and Moody falling off a broom are hardly going to cause an outcry.

I feel like after Deathly Hallows: The Book JKR should write is Lily's story, because it would finally give us a clear view on both Snape and James, and how she came to be with James. And why snape and james hated each other so much. She's the only real unbiased person to get the story from. Plus i'd like to know what lily was like. Slughorn talked hihgly of her, and she gave her life to protect her son. I think she's probably the most important character to write about, because she fuels alot of what happens after son is born.

I agree. Although I wouldn't read any non-Rowling books or anything that takes place after Deathly Hallows, I would definitely read Lily's story or Hogwarts: A History.

I also thought it was totally absurd, out of character, disgusting, and a terrible choice to have Harry perform an Unforgivable Curse. The Imperius in Gringotts I forgave after a bit of shock, but using the Cruciatus on the Carrows is an inexplicable choice Rowling made and totally out of character. Plus, McGonagall watching him do it and not being apalled just makes it even worse. I am completely at a loss as to why Rowling did that.

The Imperius Curse was required to recover the Horcrux and bring an end to Voldemort. He was not using it to harm the Gringotts Goblin.

After showing up to find his one true home taken over by Death Eaters and his friends beaten and in hiding, I'd be rather angry with those responsible. He had plenty of motive for using the Cruciatus curse. Not to mention to loss of his parents, Sirius, Dumbledore, and Dobby, which he carries with him everywhere he goes.

The Imperius Curse was required to recover the Horcrux and bring an end to Voldemort. He was not using it to harm the Gringotts Goblin.

NO WAI!!11!!

_princess_leia_ said:

After showing up to find his one true home taken over by Death Eaters and his friends beaten and in hiding, I'd be rather angry with those responsible. He had plenty of motive for using the Cruciatus curse. Not to mention to loss of his parents, Sirius, Dumbledore, and Dobby, which he carries with him everywhere he goes.

He had plenty of MOTIVE, sure, but that doesn't make it right or in character. It's been made explicitly clear since they were introduced in GOF that the Unforgivable Curses are all explicitly illegal, regardless of motive. So even though he was using Imperius as a last ditch resort for good, it was still shocking. As for the Cruciatus, he told Lupin a few hundred pages earlier that it's 'not his job to torture people' like Voldemort does. To go back and torture the Carrows, especially in cold blood, is a complete 180 from that viewpoint. A total departure from Harry. And for McGonagall to stand by and not say anything is even worse.

He had plenty of MOTIVE, sure, but that doesn't make it right or in character. It's been made explicitly clear since they were introduced in GOF that the Unforgivable Curses are all explicitly illegal, regardless of motive. So even though he was using Imperius as a last ditch resort for good, it was still shocking. As for the Cruciatus, he told Lupin a few hundred pages earlier that it's 'not his job to torture people' like Voldemort does. To go back and torture the Carrows, especially in cold blood, is a complete 180 from that viewpoint. A total departure from Harry. And for McGonagall to stand by and not say anything is even worse.

Actually, I agree. I wasn't as shocked about it as you were, however. JK spent the previous books and chapters in this one showing that Harry was terrified about becoming like Voldermort. It's what stopped him in OOTP. Quite honestly, I was mostly surprised by the casualness with which Harry used the Imperius curse at Gringotts. I remember reading and waiting for somebody to comment on the fact that Harry had busted out the unforgivable curse thing and that it was ok because of blah, blah, blah. But it didn't seem like a big deal to anybody. It took me a bit to come to the conclusion that they were "at war" and that the use of these curses must have become acceptable (which explains why McGonagal didn't freak out).

So by the time we got to Harry using it on the Carrows, I wasn't all that surprised. But I have to admit that I thought it was a regression for his character to me. By that point in the story, we were rapidly moving towards the ultimate showdown between Harry and Voldermort and the differences between them were growing more clear. I think JK wanted to shrink that difference just a bit--perhaps to hint at Harry being the horcrux. But I didn't like the way she did it. Harry had been warned early by Lupin that he should be careful that his use of the disarming spell shouldn't become his signature move but Harry fought back against that advice. I knew then that this was what he would use in the end against Voldermort. So him using the Cruciatus curse just seemed completely wrong.

My take on Harry's use of the curses is thus: It reminded me of Luke's uses of his father's Force choke on the guards at Jabba's palace, and his subsequent voicing to the Hutt about not 'underestimating his [Luke's] power'. These things in Jedi foreshadowed Luke's potential to turn to the darkside. I think that this is the sort of thing that Rowling was going for, but I think she missed it as there wasn't enough 'follow-through' in the narative.

So whilst I didn't think it completely out of character, especially in light of Harry being a Horcrux, I do think that she missed a trick in there somewhere.

My take on Harry's use of the curses is thus: It reminded me of Luke's uses of his father's Force choke on the guards at Jabba's palace, and his subsequent voicing to the Hutt about not 'underestimating his [Luke's] power'. These things in Jedi foreshadowed Luke's potential to turn to the darkside. I think that this is the sort of thing that Rowling was going for, but I think she missed it as there wasn't enough 'follow-through' in the narative.

So whilst I didn't think it completely out of character, especially in light of Harry being a Horcrux, I do think that she missed a trick in there somewhere.

-JR

I agree that she missed the mark there if that's what she was going for. The big problem isn't so much that Harry uses these curses, it's that everyone reacts to it as if that's normal and expected behavior for him.

I agree that she missed the mark there if that's what she was going for. The big problem isn't so much that Harry uses these curses, it's that everyone reacts to it as if that's normal and expected behavior for him.

I agree that she missed the mark there if that's what she was going for. The big problem isn't so much that Harry uses these curses, it's that everyone reacts to it as if that's normal and expected behavior for him.

Yeah.

Yeah x2.

There was no commentary from surrounding characters OR the narrator and no evidence of Harry's conscience in using them, just a snide remark about "really meaning it" like Bellatrix said in OOTP. I just think the issue should have been addressed somehow instead of just happening.

Dumbledore felt that Tom would only create seven Horcruxes; that that would be a number that would appeal to him. Seven, magical significance, and all that. We also know that Harry was the seventh Horcrux, but an accidental one. So... why did Voldemort not create a deliberate seventh, taking the total to eight?

Dumbledore felt that Tom would only create seven Horcruxes; that that would be a number that would appeal to him. Seven, magical significance, and all that. We also know that Harry was the seventh Horcrux, but an accidental one. So... why did Voldemort not create a deliberate seventh, taking the total to eight?

i believe the idea was seven pieces of his soul, six horcruxes plus the piece still in his body.

Ah yes. However, Dumbledore told Harry (in the Kings Cross chapter) that he was the seventh Horcrux as if this was a revelation. If there were only ever six, why make such a big deal out of revealing Harry was the seventh?